Royal Farms to make Berks debut in Douglassville
Yet another convenience store chain is getting ready to enter the Berks County market.
Royal Farms, the Baltimore-based business known for its fried chicken, has submitted plans to build a store and gas station where Route 422 splits on the east side of Douglassville at the traffic light with River Bridge Road.
Two Farms Inc., Royal Farms’ corporate parent, applied to develop the 5-acre site, which is property owned by Peter Wanner/Linda Onovato of Wanner Landscaping & Garden and Lee Mauger. The property is to be developed into three annexations, two residue lots and one commercial lot.
According to Royal Farms’ real estate site, the ideal location will have a store between 4,166 and 5,371 square-feet, traffic of at least 25,000 cars daily, a corner property with a traffic light, eight-to-10 gas pumps and a residential population of 15,000 within 3 miles.
Amity Township Manager Troy S. Bingaman said Royal Farms initially came forward with its proposal last October. He said the company received conditional preliminary plan approval from the township in August, but is still waiting for highway occupancy and erosion and sediment permits before moving forward.
“We weren’t actively looking for something to go there,” Bingaman said of the site. “But commercial and industrial development is a good thing to keep taxes down for residents.”
Berks County has become a popular landing spot for some of the biggest convenience store chains on the East Coast. While Turkey Hill, Redner’s Quick Shoppes, Wawa and Sheetz have been around for decades, the latter two have been steadily building up its footprint in Berks in recent years. Rutter’s opened its first store in Berks in 2016, while 7-Eleven has purchased A-Plus locations around Reading. Speedway and Circle K also have locations around the county.
Like most of its competitors, Royal Farms was founded by a dairy that wanted an outlet to sell its milk after consumers began shifting away from home delivery. Cloverland Farms Dairy started Royal Farms in Baltimore in 1959 and still owns it.
It has 247 stores in fives states. It has been building locations in and around Philadelphia in recent years, giving Delaware County-based Wawa a competitor on its home turf. In fact, a Wawa already stands about a halfmile west of the Douglasville site along westbound Route 422
Presently, Royal Farms’ closest locations to Berks include Lancaster, Downingtown and Collegeville.